Sales-Topping ‘TDN Rising Star’ Spectacular Grey Back For Colleen

[Wandering Eyes]

Spectacular Grey (Not This Time), who earned 'TDN Rising Star' honors on Monmouth debut July 12 before topping the Fasig-Tipton July Digital Sale this past Tuesday, goes right back to work in Sunday's $100,000 Colleen Stakes at Monmouth Park.

An 11-2 chance in a five-furlong maiden over the main track, the daughter of Rose Grey (The Factor) raced in midpack through the opening stages of that contest after breaking a fraction slowly, then bid wide into the stretch and powered clear to graduate by 7 3/4 lengths (video). Consigned to the July Digital Sale by Taylor Made on behalf of her previous owner III Beauty's Thoroughbred LLC, Spectacular Sale was sold to Epic Horses for $625,000.

The filly remains in the care of trainer Alexis Delgado, who is looking forward to see what she can do on the grass this time around.

“The old owners always wanted to try her on the grass but I said to them 'give me one opportunity on the dirt with her,'” Delgado said. “She ran an unbelievable race. She has always shown talent in the morning. She is a special filly.

“I don't think she was 100% as far as her conditioning for her first race. Maybe 80 or 85%. But she is 100% now.

He continued, “The new owners called me and said 'we like this filly for the grass.' They want to see if she is good enough to try a race at Kentucky Downs. We have to see how she does but I'm very excited to watch her race again.”

According to a Monmouth Park release, Delgado has but 42 career victories to his credit and left the training business from 2022-2024 for family and economic reasons, working as an Uber driver in the interim. Delgado's most important career victory came in the 2019 GII Davona Dale Stakes when he saddled Jeltrin (Tapizar) to a 51-1 upset ahead of a long-odds third in the GI Acorn Stakes.

“It's a great opportunity for me,” said Delgado. “For me to come back to training and to get a horse like this is unbelievable. The new owners called and said 'we saw the success you had in 2019. We want you to continue training this filly.' I am very grateful to them for that.”

Spectacular Grey has drawn the rail in a field of 11 turf sprinters, including three from the barn of Wesley Ward.

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